Torrent will once again become the capital of the historical novel with the celebration of the VII edition of Torrent Històrica, which this year advances its usual dates and will be held in the next 5 y 6 June with a program full of literary activities, meetings with authors, round tables and reading clubs.
The festival, already fully consolidated within the city's cultural calendar, will once again bring together prominent figures of the historical genre around a proposal that seeks to bring literature closer together, historical memory and critical thinking to the general public. In this edition, the great protagonist will be the writer Javier Cercas, one of the most recognized voices in contemporary Spanish narrative and author of essential works such as “Soldados de Salamina”, “Anatomy of a moment”, “The Monarch of Shadows” or “Terra Alta”, novel awarded with the Planeta Prize in 2019.
On Friday 5 of June, at 19:00 hours, The Torrent Town Hall assembly hall will host the central event of the festival with the presentation of the Honorary Consul award to Cercas, a recognition of his ability to address some of the most relevant and complex episodes in the recent history of Spain from a rigorous perspective., thoughtful and deeply human. After the award ceremony, The writer will participate in a talk open to the public where he will talk about his work and his way of understanding historical literature.
The director of Torrent Històrica, Santiago Álvarez, highlighted that Cercas “has helped us illuminate dark areas of some of our most significant recent episodes.”, always from a kaleidoscopic perspective and that helps us understand the world for what it is.: “a succession of tangled and complex facts which it is very dangerous to simplify in order to test certain hypotheses.”.
Programming will continue on Saturday 6 June with different activities distributed between the House of Culture and other spaces in the city. From 19:00 hours, the catalan writer Coia Valls, author of “Gaudí's Dream”, and the Alicante writer Juan Francisco Ferrándiz, author of “The Silk Exchange”, will participate in a round table moderated by Miguel Coll focused on the great architectural works of Valencia and Barcelona that challenged the conventions of their time.
Later, from the 20:00 hours, The writers José Ángel Mañas, author of “Kronen Stories” and “The Enigma of Papa Luna”, y Juanjo Braulio, author of “The Borgias”, They will reflect on some of the Valencian historical figures who achieved important levels of power and left their mark on history..
The festival will also once again focus on the participatory and close format with the celebration of different reading clubs on Saturday morning 6 of June. The House of Culture will host, from the 11:00 hours, meetings with the British writer Annie Lyons, author of “Manual for ladies to win the war”, and with Alicante Begoña Valero, Author of “The Secret of the Templars”. In addition, at 12:00 hours, Juan Francisco Ferrándiz will visit the headquarters of the El Vedat Neighborhood Association to talk with readers about his novel dedicated to the Valencia Market.
